somewhere in the NOT SO NEAR future...

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

He was holding her frail, wrinkled hand in his. Tears streaming down his face. His eyes were all swollen and red.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

He wanted to kick the awful machine but it was the only thing telling people she was alive...

For now.

She was dying.

An accident they said. That the roads were wet. Kailey loved the rain. She was the only survivor of all the people involved! Including a baby, five people died on impact! And his Kailey will never wake up!

Ever.

The machines are the only things keeping her alive!

He'd never hear her laughter again. Or look into her beautiful eyes.

He felt sick enough to let go of his stomach contents. The bile reaches his throat. He swallows. He stares at her once beautiful face now covered in deep wrinkles. She still had his heart. She had made him so happy, in all her years even when she grew into the old frail woman she was now. And he still stayed faithful to her. She was his wife no matter what she looked like or how old she became!

Or how young he remained.

He feels a presence in the room and looks up. It's one of the nurses he met yesterday when he rushed into the hospital after getting the phone call.

...the call that almost stopped his heart.

"Mr. Walker? Your father is here?" the male nurse made the statement into a question. He nodded and straighten up but didn't release his wife's hand. Everyone assumed Seth was his father because both their names were Walker and well yes, he looked like he was the son. If only they knew. They however tell people that he was a cousin. Or sometimes his son was his uncle. They had to maintain an image so he didn't bother to correct the male nurse as to the uncle and nephew titles.

His son steps into the room. The spitting image of him...an older version...

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Hey, Max."

Their son walks over and puts his hand on his shoulder. What a trio they made. Kailey was his grand-mother, his son was his father and he was the grand-child!

Of course, he hasn't aged a bit! And it pained him to watch everything and everyone he loved grow old and die. Just wither away. It just made him cherish the happy moments in his life. Like Seth.

His son is a happily married man with two high school children of his own. Recently, Seth remarried after he'd been widowed, having lost his first wife and both kids' mother, to cancer. Everyone on Kailey's side is dead or was the very distant family that didn't really keep in touch. It's better this way! His family is the same.

Kailey knew him. The real him. And she loved him despite it all!

That's all that mattered. And now he was losing her! The pain gnawed at him from the inside.

Their son called him Max just to keep up the image to people and in private he was called dad. Seth had known since he was a teenager, about his abilities and other than his wife and son, nobody else knew!

He isn't very close to his grandkids. He's the weird relative that knows too much, as they both put it. He'd tried many times to converse with his grand-kids, but he doesn't really understand them. Besides, they're always on electronic devices and roll their annoyed eyes at him! They've dubbed him as, "Hey dad your weird cousin is here", every time he visits his son's home.

Seth holds his mother's hand and squeezed it. He stands by her bedside and hears the silent sniffles he makes. Mother and son were always close. He covers Seth's hand with his. His son's voice broke when he says, "I'm so sorry dad."

He shakes his head, his entire face crumpled in pain. His eyebrows furrowed. He was trying to hold the tears back! She was his life! His reason for being alive! He couldn't survive without her! There's no life without her!

They both broke down in uncontrollable tears.

Then they just laid their heads down on the bed next to her, listening to the beeping sound, just waiting for the end.